1. Field of the Invention
It is often desirable to view the interior of a vessel or pipe and, accordingly, such vessels or pipes are conventionally provided with viewing ports relative to which transparent window panels are mounted in sealed relation. Further, window panels utilized for this purpose experience a buildup of foreign material on the inner surfaces reducing the transparency of the window panel and, accordingly, wiper structures heretofore have been devised for intermittently wiping the inner surfaces of the window panels.
The instant invention incorporates a wiping mechanism of this type which is gear driven, mounted solely from the window assembly and rendered extremely effective through novel mounting and driving of the window wiping element.
2. Description of Related Art
Various different forms of wiping mechanisms for sight windows and the like including some of the general structural and operational features of the instant invention heretofore have been known. Examples of such previously known forms of wiping mechanisms are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,334,508, 2,607,066, 2,888,069, 3,058,142, 3,704,481, 3,832,750, 3,887,957 and 3,927,436. However, these previously known forms of wiping mechanisms do not include structural and operational features which combine to provide the effective wiping and precision of operation enjoyed by the wiper of the instant invention.